"Quiet" Quads (mostly LPs) - Any SQ Encoded?

[jaybird100]

Well, I'm all ears. Let me know which version you have so I can find a "rip" and check it out. As far as your SM experience goes, running just about ANYTHING through a QS decoder is going to sound cool. I'm not saying this is what you heard, but I'm only mentioning this as I have fooled myself before when checking out music that was mentioned as being encoded. In any case, if you could forward any info you have, as well as cuts that seem to be very "active", that would be great to take a listen to.

I wasn't aware of more than one version of the original soundtrack album. What I have is the one that was first to be released, a two-record set. While there's no indication on the album cover or labels to say it's quad, Polydor didn't want to publicize it, for fear it might cause reduced sales. Back then, a lot of people didn't realize matrixed quad LP's are fully playable on a stereo system. MGM did something similar with an album by Gloria Gaynor, releasing it in QS with no indication on the label. It's another one that really comes to life when decoded. The copy I bought had a sticker on the shrink wrap with the QS logo.

 

[quadaholic]

I wasn't aware of more than one version of the original soundtrack album. What I have is the one that was first to be released, a two-record set. While there's no indication on the album cover or labels to say it's quad, Polydor didn't want to publicize it, for fear it might cause reduced sales. Back then, a lot of people didn't realize matrixed quad LP's are fully playable on a stereo system. MGM did something similar with an album by Gloria Gaynor, releasing it in QS with no indication on the label. It's another one that really comes to life when decoded. The copy I bought had a sticker on the shrink wrap with the QS logo.

If you were able to share a track or two in their undecoded form I'd be psyched to check it out.

 

[jaybird100]

If you were able to share a track or two in their undecoded form I'd be psyched to check it out.

From which album, Tommy or Gloria?

 

[quadaholic]

From which album, Tommy or Gloria?

Tommy. I should have been more specific. oops

 

[jaybird100]

How

Tommy. I should have been more specific. oops

How about a little of both?

 

[quadaholic]

How

How about a little of both?

hey why not?

 

[kfbkfb]

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7241769^^^
All tracks are companded. Tracks No. 1 and No. 3 are matrixed to form the left and right front and back channels. Track No. 2 forms the center front channel. Track No. 4 was not used initially...

Edit (some Quintaphonic specs):
https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.movies.tech/c/Gn3fkSr96_4

Anyone with a subscription to the SMPTE Journal (maybe some specifics of Quintaphonic sound could be posted in QQ)?

IIRC, Audio mag had a writeup about the Tommy movie (the showing took place at a high class movie theater, there was a mixing board + audio engineer in the theater fine tuning the mix as the movie played), I'm still looking in worldradiohistory.com for the writeup.

Due to the Audio article, I saw Tommy in 1975-09 (in glorious mono), I was mesmerized by the movie, I stayed to the very end of the credits just to see if there was any Quintaphonic credit.

I bought the soundtrack LP asap, it never occurred to me that the LP might be QS encoded.


Kirk Bayne

 

[MidiMagic]

It should be easy to convert between different film, VCR/DVD, and audio (LP, CD). Just pan the signal in the new system to where it should appear in the old system.

 

[quadaholic]

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7241769^^^
All tracks are companded. Tracks No. 1 and No. 3 are matrixed to form the left and right front and back channels. Track No. 2 forms the center front channel. Track No. 4 was not used initially...

Edit (some Quintaphonic specs):
https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.movies.tech/c/Gn3fkSr96_4

Anyone with a subscription to the SMPTE Journal (maybe some specifics of Quintaphonic sound could be posted in QQ)?

IIRC, Audio mag had a writeup about the Tommy movie (the showing took place at a high class movie theater, there was a mixing board + audio engineer in the theater fine tuning the mix as the movie played), I'm still looking in worldradiohistory.com for the writeup.

Due to the Audio article, I saw Tommy in 1975-09 (in glorious mono), I was mesmerized by the movie, I stayed to the very end of the credits just to see if there was any Quintaphonic credit.

I bought the soundtrack LP asap, it never occurred to me that the LP might be QS encoded.


Kirk Bayne

I was only something like 10 when this movie came out. Way too young to be aware of the audio stuff, but that baked beans scene was a life changer!

 

[par4ken]

I get that, but it's also why I'm confused. Pre-Dolby theatrical "stereo" was almost always 4-track LCRS. So, in the days when we had stereo home video but not discrete multichannel, a decision would have had to be made in regard to those LCRS soundtracks. What I'm wondering is if they routinely ran them through Dolby Stereo encoding (which, in the early days, would have been in very few homes) or just mixed the center and surround tracks equally into the standard L-R stereo tracks.

I mentioned situations where Dolby decoding of films not shown theatrically with Dolby tracks yielded what sounded like the correct results, but was that intentional or did it just work out well by accident with some material?

There's still a version of the same dilemma today: Before split surrounds came along, 6-track 70mm was usually five discrete channels behind the screen (screens were bigger then!) and mono surround. We have discrete multichannel at home now, but we still don't have center-left and center-right. So what's the proper way to combine the five front channels into three? Though that's probably something that only pops up rarely, given that 70mm 6-track films were usually also given 35mm 4-track releases.

Obviously this is not a concern for later films originally released in Dolby Stereo since ALL the two-channel tracks would have already been encoded. That was even one of the selling points for home Dolby decoders: The surround tracks were just there by default on Beta, VHS, CED and Laser.

Prior to Dolby stereo, almost everything was mono. I would think that the four tracks would have been mixed equally into a mono mix. Stereo VCR's came as I recall came out after Dolby Surround did.

 

[jaybird100]

hey why not?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14Vjj15p4ffOYH1N1wiXkPh1x7U3LkfwV/view?usp=sharing
This file contains needledrops from the "Tommy" OST album, which was an unmarked QS record. The first three tracks are from that movie. The 4th track is from the stealth quad album, "Experience", from Gloria Gaynor. The track,
"Never Can Say Goodye", sounds amazing through the Surround Master. This is also an unmarked QS LP.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Originally The Who -Tommy Movie came out in 1975 with (QS) Quintaphonic. And the Polydor album picked up some of that QS matrix with the mono discrete blended into the 2channel soundtrack album , thereby making it "SOMEWHAT"
Quad QS , but not totally as accurate as the film which was a 5channel sound production.

Sometime later Dolby Labs reissued the movie with Dolby Stereo (MP Matrix) , probably late 70's. I have Tommy The Movie on a Dolby Surround Movie listing supplied to me from Roger Dressler. (The listing is early 80's , maybe 82)


Also according to Ray Dolby , they first tried using Sansui QS on a few movies in 1974 . And the first one was "A Star Is Born", with Kris Kristopherson and Barbra Streisand.(1976)

Then for the next 2 years they tried SQ Tate DES . And the new Tate owners plus Columbia/CBS put a stop to that.
(Royalties and such)

So sometime in 77 or 78 they refined their own surround matrix (MP) , which is short for Motion Picture , surround.
4channel ; L, C, R, S.

And intially Dolby could be 3channel L.C.R or 4 channel , L, C, R, S. !
But not too much later all of Dolby Stereo sound became surround . 4channel at first then came 5 or 6 channel. Dolby SR (Spectral Recordings).

Interview with Ray Dolby , fr April 1988 Video magazine by Rich Warren A/V columnist for The Chicago Tribune.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Also another column about Tommy , Listomania both 1975 , and Star Wars (1977).

 

[jaybird100]

The "Star Wars" OST was another unmarked QS album.

 

[kfbkfb]

From the Usenet link above:
Interestingly, the Quintaphonic engineers agreed to accept these spec.'s.

Separation between channels: 12db


Must have been a mild setting for the QS Variomatrix decoder.


Both SQ and QS encoders could be used to encode MP/Dolby Surround (provided CB was Dolby B NR encoded before matrix encoding).


Kirk Bayne

 

[kfbkfb]

https://books.google.com/books?id=W...AM#v=onepage&q="polydor" "tommy" "qs"&f=false^^^
QLP POLYDOR TOMMY/ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK RECORDING $9.98

The final word on the Polydor Tommy LP?


Kirk Bayne

 

[gvl_guy]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14Vjj15p4ffOYH1N1wiXkPh1x7U3LkfwV/view?usp=sharingThe 4th track is from the stealth quad album, "Experience", from Gloria Gaynor. The track,
"Never Can Say Goodye", sounds amazing through the Surround Master. This is also an unmarked QS LP.

I don't think this track came from her "Experience" album. At least, not according to Discogs.
https://www.discogs.com/Gloria-Gaynor-Experience-Gloria-Gaynor/master/94081It looks like it's from another other albums, also from 1975.
https://www.discogs.com/Gloria-Gaynor-Never-Can-Say-Goodbye/master/94106
So maybe that tune just happens to sound great in matrix quad? I've never heard of the other album being a stealth quad

 

[jaybird100]

I don't think this track came from her "Experience" album. At least, not according to Discogs.
https://www.discogs.com/Gloria-Gaynor-Experience-Gloria-Gaynor/master/94081It looks like it's from another other albums, also from 1975.
https://www.discogs.com/Gloria-Gaynor-Never-Can-Say-Goodbye/master/94106
So maybe that tune just happens to sound great in matrix quad? I've never heard of the other album being a stealth quad

My mistake. The track is "How High The Moon". As for the album being quad, it was verified by the folks at MGM when the album came out. They chose not to label it as quad so as not to potentially cut into sales. Sorry for the goof.

 

[gvl_guy]

My mistake. The track is "How High The Moon". As for the album being quad, it was verified by the folks at MGM when the album came out. They chose not to label it as quad so as not to potentially cut into sales. Sorry for the goof.

Isn't it sad that they didn't label quad albums because they might cut into sales? When only a few years earlier, quad was the big thing?

 

[jaybird100]

Isn't it sad that they didn't label quad albums because they might cut into sales? When only a few years earlier, quad was the big thing?

There were a lot of people back then who didn't realize you could play matrixed quad LP's on a regular stereo system without damage. Remembering the warnings on earlier stereo records that warned against playing the record on a mono system, I could see why they'd think that.